Armor Wars is an upcoming Disney+ series from Marvel Studios that will give Don Cheadle’s War Machine his own solo project after years of teases of the character getting a spinoff pic going back to the press tour for Iron Man 2 back in 2010.
With head writer Yassir Lester (Black Monday) attached it looks like things will finally moving forward and as the title suggests will adapt the iconic Iron Man storyline from Marvel Comics, instead placing Rhodey in the lead role.
Armor suit technology gets into the hands of the black market and various villains, allowing for a multitude of unused Iron Man villains to finally get moment in the spotlight like Crimson Dynamo and Titanium Man among others. One of the key characters in the comic was Justin Hammer, a villain played by Oscar-winner Sam Rockwell and is expected to return in some capacity.
A listing on IMDB from stuntman Rex Reddick now suggests that Walton Goggins’ Sonny Burch from Ant-Man & The Wasp might be returning for the series, as Reddick will apparently double for Goggins on the show for at least one episode.
Reddick isn’t a stranger to Marvel projects and has previously done stunt work on Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.2, Ant-Man, Ant-Man & The Wasp, Agent Carter, and WandaVision.
We still should totally take the listing with a pinch of salt for the moment until there is further confirmation.
Goggins is no stranger to genre projects with credits such as Predators, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, Tomb Raider, Machete Kills, The Shield, Justified, Sons of Anarchy, and the hit Amazon animated superhero series Invincible.
Could Sonny Burch have been working for Justin Hammer the entire time while he was stuck behind bars? Burch could also take the Hammer role if they’re not able to wrangle Rockwell back due to scheduling. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
There is a possibility that Riri Williams (debuting in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) could appear in the show as she builds her own armor and might get on the radar of War Machine.
Marvel Studios announced back in December that they would be moving forward with a War Machine series led by Don Cheadle. Armor Wars would be directly inspired by the classic Iron Man comic book story that sees a heap of armor suited villains coming out of the woodwork.
On Friday, it was revealed by The Hollywood Reporter that the series has finally landed a head writer with Black Monday writer/producer/actor Yassir Lester landing the gig. Cheadle leads Black Monday, which is a comedic take on the world of Wall Street and the show is essentially of the more bonkers things on television.
Lester could also land a supporting role given his acting career, but that remains to be seen and it’s interesting that Cheadle will be reuniting with a creative from Black Monday, will they pursue directors as well?
An interesting element of the comic book run of Armor Wars is that Justin Hammer is part of the story and would allow Marvel to bring back Sam Rockwell.
We’ll likely have to wait a little longer to know when Marvel Studios plans to announce a target release date or cast members/characters that will appear. I think there is a good shot we’ll see Iron Man baddies such as Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, and many others finally getting their live-action adaptation.
I wouldn’t be shocked if Sharon Carter/The Power Broker and Riri Williams/Ironheart showing up in the project.
While we know that Marvel’s Armor Wars series will see Don Cheadle’s War Machine finally getting his own solo project and will seemingly adapted the Iron Man storyline from the comics, we’re still sort in the dark concerning returning characters and who is exactly working on the show.
Don Cheadle recently spoke with Collider and mentioned they’re still only in the early development stage on Armor Wars.
“All I know is that we’re going to go into the room in a couple of weeks and actually start trying to break the spine of the story and figure out who, what, when, and where for all of it. It’s super early in the development stages so I couldn’t even spoil it if I wanted to. I don’t know what happens,” Don Cheadle said of Armor Wars’ current status at Marvel Studios.
The actor landed an Emmy nomination for his brief cameo in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier (has confused Don Cheadle just like the rest of us) and there is a good shot that we might see some connections to Armor Wars. At the end of the series, we see a villainous version of Sharon Carter revealed as The Power Broker, the show’s shadowy puppet master trying to get their hands on the super-soldier serum and willing to kill to get her hands on it.
Could The Power Broker move on to Stark Tech and armor suits?
Sharon Carter was able to keep her secret from the heroes and has now return to the U.S. with her access to government projects potential means that she’ll attempt to sell secrets/technology to whoever she was planning on selling the serum to before The Flag Smashers ended that. Interestingly enough, Carter and Rhodey have a connection of sorts. They both wore the Iron Patriot armor and the end scene could telegraph that she might want to get her hands on things like Stark technology and possibly doing a tight-rope act by trying to acquire stuff under the nose of the government and War Machine.
In the comics, the big antagonist is Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer and considering he was thrown in prison after the events of Iron Man 2, it’s unlikely that he’s been able to keep his government contract. But, Hammer could be the person Sharon Carter looks to build and repair the Stark Tech as he’s one of the few people that has got their hands on the suits when he was assigned by the government to put together War Machine in Iron Man 2.
They established Madripoor as a no-mans-land for all sorts of criminal enterprises and might be a location they could be building/selling armor suits to various high-end buyers looking to get their own advanced weapons systems. Carter moving between American and Madripoor could be extremely fun because that setting needs to be further explored along with how she operates over there.
I wouldn’t be that shocked if we see Carter and Hammer working together in Armor Wars, we’ll likely see Thunderbolt Ross and Val causing headaches as well.
Coming off a bizarre Prime Time Emmy nomination for his extremely brief cameo in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, actor Don Cheadle is getting primed for his own solo series Armor Wars. However, during an interview with Colldier the actor revealed that show isn’t as far along as many imagined, as they’re only now breaking scripts in the next couple of weeks.
“All I know is that we’re going to go into the room in a couple of weeks and actually start trying to break the spine of the story and figure out who, what, when, and where for all of it. It’s super early in the development stages so I couldn’t even spoil it if I wanted to. I don’t know what happens,” Don Cheadle said of Armor Wars’ current status at Marvel Studios.
The project is expected to be an MCU adaptation of the Iron Man comic book run of the same name and will likely bring back folks like Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer and Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter/Power Broker.
What I think most will be curious about is if Armor Wars will connect to Dominique Thorne’s Marvel series Ironheart, which focuses on young prodigy Riri Williams, who builds her own armor suit. Given that Rhodey will be pursuing rogue Stark-tech, it’s possible the two could cross paths and I think fans wouldn’t mind a little superhero mentoring along the way.
This news on the status of Armor Wars isn’t all that surprising given that She-Hulk and Moon Knight are currently shooting with Secret Wars (their Skrull event series) expected to begin soon in the United Kingdom under the working title Jambalaya (still an expectation of a crossover with The Marvels cast). We also don’t have writers or directors officially attached to the series either.
This likely means Armors Wars won’t begin shooting until sometime in 2022 and won’t be ready for Disney+ until 2023, but that is only speculation on our part.
Marvel Studios has made a huge impact with their first two entries in the MCU’s live-action series at Disney+ as both WandaVision and Falcon & Winter Soldier seemed to pull-in an impressive amount of eyeballs. Either leading fans to become delighted with Kathyn Hahn’s wonderfully charismatic Agnes aka Agatha Harkness or in the case of John Walker root against him.
The studio has a steady stream of new shows coming soon with Loki, Ms. Marvel, and Hawkeye on deck for release in 2021. But more are in various stages of development including the series Ironheart that will have Dominique Thorne set in the role of Riri Williams, a child genius that is able to build her own armor suit similar to Tony Stark’s Iron Man.
Variety is reporting that Marvel has hired Chinaka Hodge as the head writer of Ironheart, after previously working as a staff writer on the TNT series Snowpiercer, a prequel to the film that was directed by Parasite’s Bong Joon-ho and based on a French graphic novel (first published in 1982) created by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette.
The Hollywood Reporter adding that Ironheart will land 6-episodes just like Falcon & Winter Soldier and that the studio hopes to get the writer’s room running by next month.
Thorne’s Riri Williams could very well have a connection to the upcoming series Armor Wars due to the technology involved with building any armor. Armor Wars sees Don Cheadle’s War Machine tracking down stolen Stark-tech that hits the black market, potentially because of Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer and the Power Broker. There has been fan speculation that Williams could end up joining a growing roster of the Young Avengers, although, Marvel hasn’t announced those plans officially.
Other shows coming in 2022 and beyond includes She-Hulk, Secret Invasion, Moon Knight, a series from Ryan Coogler connected to Wakanda, and a Hawkeye spinoff focused on the new MCU character Echo.
*WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER*
Yesterday, saw Marvel Studios release the finale for Falcon & Winter Soldier and cemented that Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson has moved from the Falcon persona to taking on the Captain America mantle from Steve Rogers. It was also reported that the studio isn’t wasting any time and has assigned screenwriters for Captain America 4 with Falcon’s Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson said to be working on a script.
I’m getting a strong feeling that Don Cheadle’s War Machine series Armor Wars could plant seeds for this upcoming Captain American sequel alongside the film’s potential threat. If you remember we saw Don Cheadle appear as Rhodey in the first episode of Falcon & Winter Soldier when Wilson donates the shield to the Smithsonian exhibit. I don’t think it was an accident that the two shared a moment in that first episode as Falcon and Armor Wars might be connected leading up to the events in Captain America 4.
Armor Wars will see James Rhodes crackdown on a wave of Stark technology getting into the black market and allows him to interact with a heap of Iron Man villains that likely wouldn’t have made the cut in feature films. Baddies such as Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, and others could finally get their live-action adaption alongside other canon-fodder characters. There could also be a link towards the introduction of Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, who will be leading her own series Ironheart.
Armor Wars’ villains could be familiar faces with Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer, who featured predominately in the comic book the show is based on and if I had to guess could easily step-in for Norman Osborn in the Dark Avengers. You might remember that he turned War Machine into Iron Patriot for Iron Man 2, the armor was used by Osborn and briefly by Sharon Carter in the comics. I wouldn’t be shocked if Hammer is recruited into the Thunderbolts potentially combining Dark Avengers with Thunderbolts into a single entity. Traditionally, Baron Zemo is the leader but there are been multiple incarnations and the MCU does it’s own thing.
Speaking of Carter, it was revealed in Falcon & Winter Soldier that she was the mysterious arms dealer The Power Broker and is now going to use her newly returned access to government weapons programs for her benefit. There is a good shot that Sharon and Justin might join forces to get their hands on Stark’s armor tech.
Zemo crushed The Power Broker’s attempt to recreate the super-soldier serum and could attempt to help take-out villains that want to get their hands on Stark’s armor tech as well. At the end of Falcon, we see Zemo’s butler killing a batch of Flag Smashers that were heading to The Raft, suggesting that he’s still dangerous even behind bars.
We currently don’t know what Marvel is planning to do with Captain America 4, but it’s worth noting that the last installment, Captain America: Civil War, was essentially an Avengers event. There is a good chance that with Falcon & Winter Soldier out of the way they can now give Sam Wilson a massive blockbuster as he takes over the Captain America franchise.
One of the main attributes of the Captain America films is that Steve Rogers has fellow superheroes working alongside him with Bucky/Peggy Carter/The Howling Commandos in Captain America: The First Avenger, Black Widow/Falcon/Nick Fury in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Bucky/Falcon/Scarlet Witch/Hawkeye/Ant-Man/Sharon Carter in Captain America: Civil War. Seeing Rhodey and Sam further develop their relationship or even partner up in the future wouldn’t be surprising given their military backgrounds and both taking on superhero mantles.
Could the next Captain America film also become some Avengers event movie like Civil War?
A new Avengers roster is being assembled before our eyes by Marvel with Sam Wilson becoming Captain America, Rhodey is essentially taking up the Iron Man mantle from Tony Stark, Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster aka Lady Thor, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova becoming Black Widow, Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk, a new yet-to-be announced Black Panther for the sequel shooting this summer, Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop aka Hawkeye, and Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres taking Sam’s spot as Falcon. How this might intersect with plans for the Young Avengers and Thunderbolts remains to be seen.
Armor Wars dropping hints for the Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers to appear in future films like Captain America 4 could be great way to have things escalate for Sam’s first film as the new Cap and sort of amp things up in comparison to the Disney+ show.
John Walker becomes U.S. Agent
Wyatt Russell’s John Walker becoming U.S. Agent remains a bit of mystery if he’s going to be part of the MCU’s version of Thunderbolts or will become a pawn of The Serpent Society (faux title for Captain America 3), Zola, and the Mandarin’s Ten Rings. It likely comes down to the intentions of his new boss Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Julia was originally supposed to appear first as Val in Black Widow before the pandemic delayed the film’s release from May 2020 to July 2021. There are already suggestions that she’ll have some connection to Yelena joining the Thunderbolts but that needs to be confirmed. It’s confirmed that Florence Pugh is reprising the role in the Hawkeye series that could also have links to Thunderbolts.
Walker could return for Armor Wars as he teamed-up with The Jury and that group could be replaced with whoever ends up getting bootleg Stark-tech, potentially Val and Justin Hammer. I’d personally like to see The Serpent Society because they would make an excellent surrogate for a modern version of HYDRA and give Sam plenty of villains to battle for the next couple of years.
Thunderbolt Ross might become a very important figure in the very near future and there is a possibility he might appear in Armor Wars given that Rhodey could be activated under Ross’ supervision.
It could be interesting to see the new Avengers going head-to-head against a competing team like the Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers, who would likely be made up multiple villains selected by Thunderbolt Ross at The Raft. Ross himself is a member of a recent version of the team as Red Hulk, a character aspect that could be explored in the She-Hulk series. He’s always been lurking behind the scenes as a government stooge and helped create the Abomination. Having Ross spearheading Thunderbolts as his namesake would make a lot of sense and it’s starting to feel like Phase 4 is leading up to the two teams clashing on the big screen.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER
Marvel’s The Falcon & The Winter Soldier has finally ended it’s six episode run and while I feel the last episode was a little long for my liking, it did seem to streamline an ending that opens a bunch of doors for multiple character returns.
We see Baron Zemo conducting super-soldier busting while being behind a cell in Thunderbolt Ross’ super-max prison The Raft, killing four of the captured Flag-Smashers while they were on their way to The Raft as Zemo’s butler seemed to be the one that executed them with a bomb.
Only time will tell if we’ll see Daniel Bruhl return to the role in some Thunderbolts project down the line.
The cat is finally out of the bag and it’s been revealed that Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter is indeed The Power Broker, something that has been long suspected and the actress even commented on the theory not too long ago. While this turn might have perplexed some assuming that she was being given a second shot at a heroic run in the MCU, it’s not that dissimilar to that of other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents such as Jasper Sitwell, who seemed level-headed good guys until they were outed as HYDRA cohorts hiding within the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
To suggest that Sharon had a strong character arc in the Captain America films would be disingenuous and while people might not like the angle Marvel took with her in Falcon, it finally gave the actress something to do outside of being a glorified cameo doing random things off-screen only to be completely forgotten when it came to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
Luckily for Sharon, she killed Batroc The Leaper before he was able to expose her secret and also shoots Karli Morgenthau. In the wake of the assassination attempts in New York City, Sharon Carter is given a full pardon in a post-credit scene and is speaking with someone that she now has access to intel/government weapons programs now that she is officially back on U.S. soil.
Could this hint to Sharon Carter’s involvement in Armor Wars?
While Sam Wilson’s costume (via Wakanda) reveal was spoiled by the toys it was interesting to see how faithful to the comic book design it was and that he’s decided not to take the super-soldier serum, which should be interesting moving forward given that Captain America is now going to be a tech-based superhero. I’m guessing everything he’s wearing is vibraium which should at least protect him from most weapons.
Another interesting thing is that we see Sam return to the home of Isaiah and Eli Bradley taking them to Smithsonian to reveal that Isaiah’s story will be told and history will remember him as he gets his own exhibit alongside Steve Rogers. While there had been rumblings Eli joining a Young Avengers project, there doesn’t seem to be any signs that he has any superpowers in his current state.
I have to assume that with Sam’s new super-suit and being established as the new Cap, we’ll get some sort of announcement concerning Captain America 4 moving forward at the studio.
We see Bucky make amends crossing-off the last name on his list and ending his therapy. I wouldn’t be shocked if he has a supporting role in future Captain America films alongside Mackie or is given a solo project at some point.
John Walker’s time as U.S. Agent begun as Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Val has outfitted him with a new costume and is giving him a second chance, however, her true intentions haven’t been revealed or who she is ultimately working for. Val seeming makes a statement suggesting she’s aware of how bonkers things will be getting with the Skrulls/Secret Invasion but doesn’t elaborate.
There are still some loose ends going on as we don’t know if Joaquin Torres is going to follow in Sam’s footsteps as the new Falcon and if Steve Rogers is really dead, it’s been suggested twice he’s on the Moon. Given S.W.O.R.D.’s upcoming presence in Captain Marvel 2 and Secret Invasion, I wouldn’t be shocked if they’ve established a base on the surface of the Moon leading to believe he’s up there. Nobody seems to talk about Steve being dead or a funeral, given we saw on-screen funerals for Peggy Carter and Tony Stark they would unlikely do that off-screen. Leaving things open is likely being done on purpose.
What did you think about the series and it’s finale?
As fans will be trying to figure-out the upcoming Easter Eggs and cameos in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, showrunner Malcolm Spellman spoke to Entertainment Weekly revealing the show will indeed have connections to at least three unnamed MCU projects.
The answers to these questions will have drastic impacts on the MCU moving forward. Similar to how WandaVision leads directly into the film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spellman says he can think of three projects off the top of his head that tie into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier that he’s “not allowed to talk about.”
Don Cheadle has confirmed he’ll be appearing as Rhodey aka War Machine, which likely means that Armor Wars will have an obvious connection to the series. There are also expectations that it could tie-into things such as She-Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and maybe even a yet-to-be-announced Thunderbolts project.
I’m also curious if Marvel will make an announcement concerning Captain America 4 starring Anthony Mackie, because the actor had once teased in older interviews that he felt the series was meant to line-up his own wave of Captain America films.
After WandaVision, I think fans would be smart to just pump the breaks with the speculation that characters such as Wolverine or Omega Red will be showing up to keep expectations in a realistic realm (even if Madripoor will be a location). The online fan community stoked WandaVision theories to the point that there was sort of a backlash when characters like Reed Richards and Doctor Strange didn’t show up, despite zero evidence that was actually going to happen.
There seems to be enough real connections in the new series that should make fans happy.
While a Season 2 hasn’t been announced and Kevin Feige has previously prepped fans that some of the Disney+ shows don’t currently have plans for multiple seasons. He mentioned during a press conference via Deadline that there are ideas for Falcon’s Season 2. Although, he stopped short from confirming they would be doing that.
FEIGE: “We get asked [that question] much more in television, because people expect it to be like what they know before: Where’s Season 2? We approached it like the movies: We better make this great, because we won’t be able to do another one. If we’re able to do another one, there’s certainly ideas.”
Directed by Kari Skogland, the Marvel series has a cast that consists of Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Daniel Bruhl, Emily VanCamp, Wyatt Russell, Erin Kellyman, George St. Pierre, Adepero Oduye, Veronica Falcon, Desmond Chiam, Carl Lumbly, Miki Ishikawa, and Amy Aquino.
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier will debut on Disney+ this Friday and will have 6-episodes, three less than WandaVision.
After revealing that his character Rhodey aka War Machine would be appearing in Marvel’s next Disney+ series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, Don Cheadle has given Entertainment Tonight an idea when production of his own solo series Armor Wars will begin. Stating things will begin filming in “a couple of months”, however, didn’t mention where that will be taking place.
CHEADLE: “It’s going to be dope. We’re really going to have a chance to explore a lot of stuff about [James] Rhodes. I mean, you look at what we’ve done so far, there’s a lot left to be explored. So I think there’s a lot of real estate that we’re going to dig into.It’s going to be just fully wide open.”
“We’re going to start filming in a couple months and we’ll see.”
The series will focus on War Machine cracking down on Tony Stark’s technology getting into the wrong hands, the comic book it takes inspiration from included Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer giving Marvel Studios a big opening to bring the character back to the MCU.
The assumption is that it would be shooting in Atlanta, Georgia as with the other Disney_ shows but it’s odd that with it starting so soon they haven’t announced writers, showrunner or director for Armor Wars at this point.
Don Cheadle has revealed on the Post-Credit Podcast that his Marvel character Rhodey aka War Machine will be showing up in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier series. How much or how many episodes wasn’t mentioned but Don will be getting his own spinoff show on Disney+ titled Armor Wars, which is expected to take cues from the comic book storyline of same name and could mean the return of Sam Rockwell‘s Justin Hammer.
CHEADLE: “That’s some of the fun of the MCU, that we all get to show up in each other’s stories, and there are ways that we’re cross-platforming these characters, and they become storylines, sometimes, in the movies. And then these storylines in the movies become storylines in the shows.”
“It’s really a fun and interesting and, by all imagination, completely open-ended — this can go anywhere. It’s great, I can’t wait to get in the room with the writers and figure out how all those things [connecting Armor Wars to the MCU] happen. You know, Rhodey shows up in Winter Soldier and Falcon’s show. So, it can be a lot.”
This could mean that Falcon might help plant seeds for Armor Wars.
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier begins airing on Disney+ starting March 19th and it’s likely that Armor Wars won’t begin airing until sometime in 2022-2023.
Fans will have to keep their fingers-crossed for a full trailer this weekend.
Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) team up in a global adventure that tests their abilities—and their patience—in Marvel Studios’ The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. The all-new series is directed by Kari Skogland; Malcolm Spellman is the head writer. Streaming exclusively on Disney+.
THE RONIN 